by Alayne McGregor
It’s called “beg button ballet”–the frustrating extra step pedestrians have to go through in order to legally cross at many Ottawa intersections. And, in the current pandemic, it’s also raising worries about virus transmission caused by many people touching these buttons.
Responding to these concerns, Councillor Shawn Menard asked city staff last month to investigate making all intersections in a ward automatically give Walk signals, if a ward councillor so requested and “when safe to do so.”
Last week, staff resoundingly rejected that idea.
At some intersections in Centretown–and many across Ottawa–pedestrians must press a yellow-encased “beg” button in order to get a Walk signal. Even if the corresponding traffic signal turns green for vehicles, unless the button is pressed the pedestrian signal may still show Don’t Walk, and less time is allocated for crossing.
Somerset Ward Councillor Catherine McKenney describes that situation as “highly problematic. It gives drivers the message that they can go, that the pedestrian doesn’t have the right to cross. It makes pedestrians nervous because they see they don’t have that invitation to cross.”
The good news is that only about 15% of intersections in Centretown are like this. McKenney said the rest had been reprogrammed to automatically show Walk–after years of pressure by them and by previous Councillor Diane Holmes.
“So that means that they change on a regular basis, so if you’re a pedestrian you don’t have to use that button.”
All intersections still have the beg buttons, because they’re also used by the visually impaired to get audible pedestrian signals (through a long press on the button).
But how do you tell whether you need to press the button?
“That’s the problem, right? You can’t,” McKenney said. “I will often get messages from people that say, ‘I wish at this intersection I didn’t have to press the button’, and I say, ‘You don’t have to press the button! It’s automatic [at that intersection].’ ”
“But then there will be other intersections where, as a pedestrian, you’ll amble up, you’ll see that the light’s about to change because a car has actuated it. But then you won’t get your Walk signal. So it’s confusing. It’s hard to know which intersections are automatic and which aren’t. So, it’s better just to have them all automatic, and treat pedestrians with the respect and with the safety measures in mind that we need to.”
Earlier this month, the City of Edmonton made pedestrian signals automatic at 56 high-pedestrian intersections in the city, as well as those around hospitals, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Concerns that people touching the buttons with their fingers might spread the virus is another reason to make them automatic, McKenney said. “But even without that, I think that the safety of pedestrians would warrant having fully automatic lights.”
They noted that this might not apply to all of Ottawa: “you may have some intersections that see one or two pedestrians a day, maybe. But I know that in a dense neighbourhood like the one I represent, there really is no reason not to give a pedestrian light on every cycle.”
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Last week, city staff rejected the Menard proposal, saying that it was not recommended by Ottawa Public Health. “The transmission risk associated with push button use would be relatively low and would be best dealt with by practicing good hand hygiene at all times.”
Staff also argued that the change would increase complaints from motorists delayed by longer signal timings; encourage motorists to run red lights; and disrupt bus schedules by causing longer waits at intersections for pedestrian crossings. The memo said staff were currently investigating changing signal software so that pedestrians would automatically get a Walk signal if a vehicle is detected at a signalized intersection.
McKenney described the staff memo as “a very unsatisfactory response to a growing need in our communities for pedestrian comfort and safety.
“I’m not surprised given the overall reluctance to make this a more equitable and sustainable city by the leadership in the city.”